


Fodlan Vandal

by kryptonianmenace



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, M/M, Modern Era, byleth is a student in the ashen wolves in this but its not important, sylvix is only mentioned
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-08
Updated: 2021-01-08
Packaged: 2021-03-12 02:56:30
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,403
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28628400
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kryptonianmenace/pseuds/kryptonianmenace
Summary: Someone vandalized the Garreg Mach faculty parking lot, and the blame is laid on Caspar. Of all people, it's the Golden Deer who decide to investigate, and see if they can clear his name.
Relationships: Background Felix Hugo Fraldarius/Sylvain Jose Gautier, Caspar von Bergliez/Linhardt von Hevring
Comments: 4
Kudos: 34





	Fodlan Vandal

**Author's Note:**

> Part of a fic trade with my friend Anna! Based off the show _American Vandal._  
>  Honestly, the Golden Deer are the type to butt their heads into situations that don't involve them, so a mystery at Garreg Mach? Right up their alley.

Claude snapped and pointed at Lorenz. “Alright, Lorenz, buddy, what do we know?”

The seniors of the Golden Deer house were gathered in their homeroom classroom around the center desks. Claude, Leonie, and Hilda were seated on top of the desks, with Lorenz, Marianne, and Ignatz in chairs. Lysithea and Raphael were standing, the former next to the blackboard with a piece of chalk, the latter close by holding a roll of tape. On the board were taped up yearbook photos of the seniors in all the houses, along with taped up strings connecting them to various phrases written on the board.

Lorenz cleared his throat. “Last week, the faculty parking lot was targeted and all the cars were covered in paint and glitter. The timeline is as follows: Seteth took Flayn on his usual grocery shopping trip and returned at 11:15 am. The cars were fine then. At around 11:40 am, he realized he forgot a bag in the car, and returned to the parking lot, where he found the crime. Caspar was expelled a few days ago for the vandalism and is set to leave campus tomorrow. None of the senior Black Eagles could get their stories straight when they were interviewed about Caspar’s whereabouts.”

“What are they saying the motive is again?” Leonie asked.

“I was getting there,” Lorenz grumbled.

“Caspar is known for fighting underclassmen who bully Bernadetta, but he’s the only one who ever gets in trouble. The faculty think this is his revenge for all the times he’s gotten in trouble,” Lysithea said, pointing to a note on the blackboard. “Interestingly enough, Bernadetta refused to cooperate with the interviews, both from the school board and from us.”

“Let’s go over the different alibis the Black Eagles gave again, something’s off about them to me,” Hilda said. “And not just that they don’t match.”

Ignatz nodded, pulling out his notebook. “Well, Bernadetta refused to be interviewed, which we already went over. Linhardt said he was in his room all day, which indicates that he didn’t see Caspar at all. Edelgard and Hubert both claimed Caspar was in the library with them, which doesn’t match Caspar’s story. Dorothea said she was going over the choir songs with Caspar, which also doesn’t match his story. Caspar, Ferdinand, and Petra all said they were training together for the upcoming game, but Caspar said they were out on the field, while Ferdinand said they were in the weight room. Petra couldn’t even remember she was talking about Caspar the whole time and switched her story to say Linhardt was there instead partway through the interview.”

“See, my heart tells me Bernie knows something and that’s why she’s not cooperating, but my head is telling me that Petra is the way to go when it comes to getting someone to crack,” Claude said.

“Caspar lent us his phone to see if his texts clear him in anyway, why not use that? We have to give it back tomorrow when he’s kicked off campus, but we should have enough time to comb it over pretty decently,” Hilda said.

“Wait, wait, wait,” Leonie said, leaning forward to look at Hilda around Claude with wide eyes. “You’ve had his phone this whole time and neglected to tell us?”

Hilda gave her a sheepish grin. “I, uh, forgot his password, which is why we haven’t used it.”

“That’s why?” Claude asked. “You told me some bullshit about morals and solving this on our own. Give it here, I’ll call one of the Black Eagles and have them put Caspar on the phone so we can get his password.”

“Okay, while Claude is doing that, what else do we know?” Lysithea asked with a clap to gain their attention.

“Edelgard pointed out that it’s not fair that we’re focusing the investigation solely on the Black Eagles, so I added photos of all the seniors to the board. I thought we could go over motives and alibis,” Raphael said.

“Why are we on there?” Ignatz asked.

“We’re seniors, too. Rhea said that only a senior could’ve had access to the art room on a Sunday because we’re the only students given keys at Garreg Mach and the teachers were all with Seteth when he was putting the groceries away,” Raphael said with a shrug.

“Personally I think it’s bullshit that all the teachers were together, but we’ve got no proof otherwise,” Claude said absentmindedly as he waited for the person on the other line to pick up.

“Well, I can tell you why it’s not Claude,” Hilda said, examining her nails.

Claude pulled his phone away from his ear and looked up, exasperated. “Really, now?”

“Claude wants in Byleth’s pants too much. He’d never do anything to piss off Coach Jeralt because we all know how much Byleth values Coach’s opinion.”

Claude gaped as the others stifled their laughter.

“How dare you, Hilda, this is meant to be a safe space,” he finally said. “How would you like it if I told the others how you have a crush on--” 

Hilda covered Claude’s mouth with a glare, scowling when he licked her hand but not pulling away.

Rolling his eyes, Claude pushed Hilda’s hand away and held up Caspar’s phone. “Anyway, let me focus. Edelgard just picked up. Hey, sorry to keep you waiting, Hilda was being annoying again.”

“I wonder if it’s significant that Petra got Caspar and Linhardt mixed up in her interview with the school board,” Marianne said.

“No, I’m not trying to interview you again. Can you get Caspar on the phone? He doesn’t have his phone on him,” Claude said loudly, not caring that there was a conversation going on.

“Are you thinking Linhardt did it?” Lorenz asked.

“Not necessarily, but maybe he’s connected somehow,” Marianne said.

“In what way?” Ignatz asked.

“Maybe he knows where Caspar really was?” Lysithea asked.

“Hey, Caspar! You know how you lent Hilda your phone? We need your password again, she forgot it,” Claude said.

Hilda rolled her eyes. “Damn, Claude, could you be any louder?”

“Damn, Hilda, is that anyway to treat the only person being useful?” he asked.

“Just ignore him,” Lysithea said. “Let’s talk alibis for those that aren’t Caspar.”

“Can’t be the Ashen Wolves,” Leonie said. “Coach took them on a field trip that weekend.”

“So, that rules out Yuri, Balthus, Constance, Hapi, and Byleth,” Ignatz said. “We don’t know for sure about the rest of the Black Eagles, just that they were covering for their own. We also don’t know about the Blue Lions.”

“I trust that none of us did it, but we have to rule it out fairly,” Lorenz said. “We have to seriously consider each other.”

“Ignatz, you mentioned earlier that you were in the art room that morning, right?” Marianne asked.

“Yes, but I was washing paint off my glasses when someone came in,” he said. “I think they had dark hair but I’m not really sure.”

“I went to get Ignatz for an early lunch at 11:30,” Raphael said. “Lysithea saw us when we entered the cafeteria.”

“This is true,” Lysithea confirmed. “I was in the cafeteria with Marianne. Marianne was getting apples for Dorte when I saw Raph and Ignatz.”

“I was training with Ashe that morning,” Claude said. “By the way, I got the password and I’m looking through the phone now.” He held up the phone as proof and the others nodded in acknowledgement.

“I was out shopping with Annette and Mercedes,” Hilda said. “I have the receipts, too.”

“I was on a phone call with my father,” Lorenz said.

“Alright, we can corroborate our stories later, right now let’s just assume everyone has proof or someone to back them up,” Hilda said. “That means that the remaining suspects are Caspar, Linhardt, Edelgard, Hubert, Ferdinand, Bernadetta, Petra, Dorothea, Dimitri, Ingrid, Dedue, and Felix. Am I missing anyone?”

“Sylvain?” Ignatz asked.

“No, his parents had already taken him home by then,” Hilda said.

“The underclassmen I talked to said that Edelgard and Hubert were telling the truth about being in the library, they just lied about Caspar being with them,” Lysithea said.

“Okay, that rules out those two, that leaves ten more suspects,” Claude said.

“Ignatz said he saw someone with dark hair enter the art room and grab supplies,” Leonie said. “That rules out Dimitri, Ingrid, Dedue, and Ferdinand. Maybe even Caspar?”

“I wouldn’t go based off that, though,” Ignatz said. “I had my glasses off so we can’t be sure.”

“It’s a good clue, though. If we can rule out those five, that means you were right,” Leonie said.

“Dedue was helping the kitchen staff that morning,” Marianne said. “He’s the one who gave me the apples for Dorte.”

“Good, another suspect ruled out,” Hilda said.

“Wait, wait,” Lysithea said. “Has anyone been writing this down? Because I’ve been so caught up in the conversation that I forgot.”

Marianne held up her notebook. “I have.”

“Can I borrow that to put it all on the board?” Lysithea asked.

Marianne passed her the notebook and the others paused to check their phones.

“Woah, woah, woah, I think I found something,” Claude said, holding out the phone.

Hilda and Leonie leaned in on either side of him to see, while the others moved closer as well.

“It’s just a selfie of Linhardt and Caspar, what of it?” Leonie asked.

“Take a closer look at the time stamp on the phone,” Claude said. “11:27 am on the day of the crime, and where is this selfie taken?”

“I don’t know, where?” Leonie asked.

Claude zoomed in on a corner of the photo.

Hilda gasped. “That looks like a bed in the corner! They were  _ both _ in Lin’s room!”

“Why wouldn’t they just say that?” Raphael asked.

The others all looked at him with varying degrees of skepticism.

“Maybe because Sylvain and Felix  _ just _ got caught for breaking the no-classmates-in-your-dorm-room rule and it led to Rhea telling their parents? Which led to Sylvain’s parents having a homophobic freak out and pulling him out of school?” Claude said.

“They were probably worried the same thing would happen to them,” Lorenz said.

“Ingrid told me that Felix hasn’t left his room in days, he’s so upset. It’s a mess, man,” Claude said. 

“Wait,” Hilda said, holding her hands out and eyeing Claude sharply. “You better not be thinking of going to the teachers with this.”

“I texted Linhardt telling him we need him and Caspar to meet us here,” Claude said. “I wanna talk to them about the proof we found before we show the teachers anything.”

“Good plan,” Hilda said. “After what happened when Sylvain and Felix got caught, we don’t want to put anyone else in that situation.”

“We might have to if we want to get Caspar’s name cleared,” Lorenz said.

“I’d prefer it if we could find the real vandal instead of outing them,” Claude said.

Lorenz gave a small noise of agreement.

“After we talk with them, we should talk to the other suspects again,” Hilda said.

“Right, we can split up and interview them again. Remind me who the remaining suspects are?” Claude asked.

Lysithea pointed to each photo on the board as she said the names. “Going based off the alibis we’re assuming are solid, the remaining suspects are Bernadetta, Petra, Dorothea, Ferdinand, Dimitri, Ingrid, Dedue, and Felix. If Ignatz’s theory that it’s someone with dark hair is correct, that rules out Ferdinand, Dimitri, Ingrid, and Dedue.”

“I’m really not confident in that theory, so we should still count them in,” Ignatz said.

“Let’s start with the light haired suspects and rule them out before we go with Ignatz’s theory,” Lorenz said. “Especially since Ignatz himself isn’t confident in it.”

“That means there are eight suspects,” Lysithea said. 

“Good thing there’s eight of us,” Claude said.

There was a loud sigh from the doorway and the class turned to see Linhardt and Caspar entering the room.

“Are you still looking into this?” Linhardt asked.

“Of course they are, they’re trying to prove I’m innocent!” Caspar said, pulling Linhardt further into the room.

“Why do you need me here?” Linhardt asked. “I’m not the one being accused.”

“Well,” Claude said, waving Caspar’s phone. “You’re involved in his alibi.”

Linhardt stared at Claude, eyebrow raised in disbelief. “I told you I was in my room all day.”

Claude grinned. “And you were. And according to the eleven selfies Caspar took, so was he.”

Caspar, who had wandered over to the blackboard to investigate it, froze in place. “You looked at my photos? I gave you my phone to go through my texts.”

“You did  _ not _ specify,” Hilda said. “We’re sorry to have found out like this, but you never specified what we could and couldn’t look at.”

“So all of you know we’re together now,” Linhardt said.

“We’re not going to out you,” Claude said hastily. “We’re not assholes. We wanted to talk to you about what to do.”

“What do you mean?” Caspar asked, moving to stand next to Linhardt once more.

Claude glanced at Hilda, who shrugged.

It was Hilda who spoke first. “This timing on the photos could exonerate Caspar, but it would also let everyone know you were breaking the no-classmates-in-your-room rule like Sylvain and Felix, and we all saw how terrible  _ that _ went when Rhea found out.”

“The question here is would you rather us try to find the real culprit and run the risk of us not finding them in time, or would you rather bring this to the faculty and clear your name?” Claude asked.

“Quite frankly, I don’t care if people give us a hard time for being in the same room,” Linhardt said. “It’s a dumb rule and I don’t care if I’m caught breaking it. I don’t even care if people know we’re dating. It’s not their business anyway.”

“I don’t know how my dad would react, but he probably wouldn’t like it,” Caspar said. “Is there a way we could talk Rhea into not telling my dad?”

“They’ll probably have to explain how they know you’re innocent,” Claude said.

“Which will he be more mad about, you being gay, or you committing a felony?” Linhardt asked.

“That is genuinely a good question,” Caspar said. “Probably the felony.”

“Then let’s clear your name,” Linhardt said, grabbing Caspar’s hand and squeezing it.


End file.
